


A Million Stars Away

by uamiddendorffi (Agama_agama)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Aliens- Freeform, Alternate Universe - Scientists, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, M/M, Multi, Slow Burn, The Desert, boring science with intermittent lesbians, rated m for miu, tags and pairings to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:15:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21775069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agama_agama/pseuds/uamiddendorffi
Summary: Kaede Akamatsu, a radio engineer, sets out to the Australian desert to help interpret radio signals being sent from space (and not just to follow Shuichi Saihara).The first thing she learned is that Miu Iruma is a handful.
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Iruma Miu, Chabashira Tenko/Yumeno Himiko, Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> posting danganronpa in december 2019? why not? 
> 
> anyway, this is my first actual multichapter story, and i'm excited to expand on it! hope you enjoy!!!

Kaede remembered her mother telling her about when intelligent life was discovered on some distant planet in the Milky Way, back when she was young. She remembered the way her mother talked about the world she grew up in- it was a tense place, ruled by anxiety over the unknown and the fear that this was some kind of apocalyptic prophecy. It took most of a generation for things to calm down even a little, and Kaede knew well the kind of looming threat that still controlled the entire human population. 

She wanted to understand it better. To give people back some idea of control over their own lives, rather than leaving them in the hands of unknown beings further away than they could imagine. 

That's why she wanted to help translate the radio signals that Earth was suddenly getting.

It had nothing to do with following Shuichi Saihara. 

She sighed as she pulled up to the intersection sign. In the light of the desert sunset, Kaede could see the old sign pointing towards the nearest settlements- both hundreds of miles away- and the new one pointing towards Kibougamine Research Base, which was significantly closer. She took the opportunity to turn her air conditioner up all the way. She'd run out of the spare gas she'd brought about half an hour ago and turned her air conditioner down, but driving through the desert without it was miserable. She was really hoping for those cooler nights she'd heard the Tannebaum Desert had. 

Kaede leaned back and closed her eyes. She had half a tank of gas and Kibougamine was close, she could take a minute to rest and think. 

Was it really that bad to make decisions based on following someone's crush? Kaede sighed. She had to remember that this wasn't some office job where she could lazily pursue a romance between photocopying papers. She would be part of a group of scientists trying to decipher a communication from aliens. For a job that could potentially change the future of humanity, Kaede felt like her priorities were off. What if everyone else was infinitely more devoted than she was, or she held them back by being barely qualified? 

Not that Shuichi was her only reason to be there by any means. Even if she was going to be stuck in the remote Australian desert for the forseeable future, it was an incredible opportunity. But Kaede knew that if Shuichi was still back in Japan, stuck in some office job, that's where she would be too. 

Shuichi was just special to her like that. Not only was she in love with him, he was really the first real friend she'd ever had. Kaede had always devoted herself fully to her studies and perfecting the piano. She didn't even realize she never had a social life until she met a very cute boy who happened to be in the same boat while she was in college. She owed him a lot.

She decided to stop thinking about it and drive. It was really starting to get dark out, and getting lost out here was probably the worst case scenario.

The base wasn't that far away, anyway. Kaede started driving down the road leading to Kibougamine. Thankfully, there should only have been one singular road going forward. While there was some sand blowing over it in places, it was well-lit and clearly marked. 

She arrived before she expected to. Kaede would have wondered if it was the wrong place because she had prepared herself for a longer ride through the desert, but what she was looking at was clearly some sort of high-tech laboratory. That, or a science fiction-themed hotel.

The building was situated on a concrete block with a parking garage and an airstrip flanking it. At first, Kaede almost throught she was looking at two buildings, but she realized that it was just one almost hexagonal one, with the area where one wall would normally be pushed in to form a square-shaped open area. She pulled into the parking lot to the left and almost fell over when she got out- she had gotten into the car earlier in Alice Springs and had been in the air conditioning since then. She wasn't prepared for the late afternoon heat. 

Fortunately, it was a quick walk from the parking garage to the front entrance of the building, and it felt heavily air conditioned once she stepped inside. There were a few scientists and miscellaneous other staff milling about inside, but other than that it felt kind of strange and empty. Like a fancy hotel. Actually, it was a lot more like a hotel than she had expected. She hadn't really been inside a residential lab before, but she always assumed they would be sparse and cold. Yet here she was, with her sneakers tracking in sand onto the marble floors below a small chandelier.

Kaede took a few more tenative steps inside the building, and caught the attention of a blue-haired girl holding a clipboard that she hadn't noticed when she walked in. She assumed that she noticed how lost Kaede looked, because the girl smiled and waved at Kaede before getting up off the couch she was sitting on and walking over to her. Kaede gave her an uneasy smile back as she looked at her. This girl had big, round glasses, a lab coat, and hair pulled into a tight but messy bun. She looked like a real scientist, and Kaede couldn't believe how intimidated she was by the cute, smiling woman in front of her. 

"Hi, my name's Tsumugi Shirogane. Did you just arrive?" Kaede nodded. Something about Tsumugi's voice put her at ease. 

"I'm Kaede Akamatsu. It's nice to meet you," she said as gave Tsumugi a polite bow, which she then returned. 

"Oh, can I show you around since you just got here? There's a bit of a trick to getting the elevator to work properly." 

"Um, sorry?" said Kaede, who had been distracted watching Tsumugi tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "A tour? Oh, yeah, I'd love to! I'm not really great with new places. I still need to get my luggage out of the car, though. Can you wait for me?"

"Oh, don't worry, I can take care of that," said someone from behind her with a very deep voice. When Kaede turned around, it was another... scientist? He was also wearing glasses, but his outfit consisted of sweatpants and a t-shirt with a cartoon of a kangaroo on it. He bowed to her awkwardly deeply and introduced himself. "Gonta Gokuhara. I'm from the biology department." Kaede introduced herself in turn. 

"Um, my car is on the second floor of the parking garage. Are you sure it's okay if I don't help? I kind of... overpacked." Gonta went red and bowed deeply again in apology.

"I'm so sorry! A gentleman shouldn't offer to look at a woman's luggage. Is there anything, uh, personal?" Gonta looked legitimately worried, which made Kaede giggle and relax a bit. 

"No, it's all in suitcases. It's fine. I'm just worried the keyboard I brought might be an issue, but we can go together. I'll carry it in." Gonta nodded.

"That sounds good. Yes. Um, Tsumugi, could you help?" Tsumugi looked surprised to have been asked that for a split second before she agreed. 

Gonta opened the door for the two of them, and Kaede visibly winced as the hot air hit her. Tsumugi smiled at her. "Don't worry, you get used to it." 

"Ugh. I hope so," replied Kaede. "Do you actually leave the building a lot?"

Tsumugi started walking, and Kaede followed. "Hmm... Some of us leave a couple times a day, usually to check with the delivery people or visit town for some reason. Honestly, I usually stay inside. What do you do here?"

"Oh, me? I work with analyzing radio signals. I guess I'm an analyst," answered Kaede. She wiped the sweat from her brow- even when the sun was setting, the heat was overbearing. 

"Okay, so you'll work with, uh, Miu. That'll be... interesting." Kaede wanted to ask what she meant, but Gonta spoke up before she got the chance to. "Hey, which one is your car?" 

"It's over here," she said, walking up to it and unlocking the trunk. Gonta, impressively, carried most of it on his own. Tsumugi picked up a light duffel bag, leaving Kaede's electric keyboard the only thing left in the trunk. She inspected its plexiglass case for damage, then picked it up. 

"Oh, that's what you meant by keyboard!" chirped Tsumugi. "I thought you were talking about a gaming keyboard or something." 

"No, I don't play video games that much. But I've been playing the piano since I was little, and, well, I couldn't bring my grand piano from home." Tsumugu nodded her head and muttered "The wifi here sucks anyway..."

Kaede shut her trunk and Gonta led them back toward the front of the building. She decided that she liked Tsumugi and Gonta. Maybe if everyone was like them, she wouldn't have that much of a problem shouldering the responsibility. She'd pictured scientists- real, actual scientists- to be snobby and kind of mean. Kaede expected to be treated like she had walked into some exclusive club she wasn't qualified to be in. But Gonta and Tsumugi were, despite being a little eccentric, nice. She decided to take some time out of her day to find Shuichi tomorrow- he had already been here a week, so they had a lot to catch up on already. 

Gonta pushed the door open with his back, arms full of luggage. The two girls followed.

"So, where should I put all of this?" wondered Kaede. Tsumugi groaned.

"I forgot. You need to check in with Ouma," she said.

"Oh! Kokichi is nice. You'll like him, Kaede. Follow me!" Gonta took off at a quick pace down a hallway, and once again, the two girls followed. Tsumugi sighed, and began whispering to Kaede.

"Kokichi Ouma is the site director. He's only nice to Gonta because he brings him soda." Kaede nodded, pretending to know what that meant. 

"Here it is!" called Gonta from a couple doors down. When Kaede approached the door, the first thing she noticed were several magnetic nameplates stuck all over the place bearing the name 'Kokichi Ouma'. 

At least she knew whose office it was. 

Neither of the people she was with gave the display a second glance. Gonta knocked on the door.

"Kokichi! It's me, Gonta! There's a new girl!" 

Someone shouted "Come in" from inside, and Gonta opened the door and started to enter. 

"Not you," elaborated the person (Ouma? Probably Ouma) from inside the room. "The new hire." Gonta apologized and motioned as best he could with his arms full of luggage for Kaede to enter. She looked at Tsumugi, who gave her an apologetic smile.

When Kaede entered the room, she was surprised to find a large, elaborate desk with nobody behind it. She shrieked and almost dropped her keyboard when a young man popped out from behind it and shouted "Who dares enter my domain??" 

"Jeez! D-don't scare people like that," said Kaede. Ouma reclined back in his chair.

"Hey, don't tell me what to do. I outrank you." The joking tone of the command was more unsettling than it should have been. "So, you just got in and Gonta has been dragging you around, right? Okay, uh, here's your ID card," he said, putting a small piece of plastic on the desk in front of her. "You can use it to get into doors, and it has your title and room assignment and stuff on it. Have fun, number seventy-three." 

"Thank y- wait, what did you just call me?" 

"Number seventy-one? It's your designation."

"Um, but my name's Kaede Akamatsu. Didn't you just hand me my ID card?"

The response she got was an exaggerated shrug and "Do you really think I don't have more important things to do than remember names all day?" Kaede grabbed the ID card, bowed and quickly thanked Ouma before leaving. She could see herself getting impatient with him quickly, and it probably wouldn't be great if she yelled at the site director on her first day.

Gonta was patiently waiting holding all of Kaede's luggage and Tsumugi had a sympathetic expression on her face. "Did he give you a number?", asked Tsumugi. 

Kaede nodded. Tsumugi suddenly said "Oh! what's your room number? Let me see your ID card." Kaede handed it to her, and she examined it. "Okay, you're 52. Uh, room 52. Funny, I'm in room 53!" her and Kaede smiled at each other. 

"Room 53 is on this floor, right?" asked Gonta.

Tsumugi answered him. "Yeah, it should be. You just need to leave the office corridor and head to the residential section." The three of them left again, this time with Tsumugi leading the way. However, when they passed through the lobby, another booming voice caught their attention. 

"Tsumugi! Oh man, I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" 

Tsumugi adjusted her glasses again and turned towards the familiar looking boy the voice came from, then looked back at Kaede. "Sorry, I kind of forgot that I... have work. It's just down the other hallway- keep walking until you see a door with a 52 on it." She handed the duffel bag to Kaede and said a quick goodbye before going off with the man. 

"Well? Ladies first," said Gonta, attempting to gesture something or another before almost dropping everything he was holding. 

"Thank you," said Kaede, walking down the hallway trying to stifle her laughter. 

It really wasn't a long walk at all to her room. Her and Gonta put all of her things down by her bed, and then he left in a bit of a hurry. She waved goodbye and took a second to look around. It looked a lot less like a college dorm than she had expected, and more like a fancy hotel room. 

Well, the one thing she did like about big, ostentatious hotels were the fact that they always had comfortable beds. She laid down almost instantly and almost immediately closed her eyes. She hadn't even realized how tired she was in the day's excitement. The comfortable warmth of the bed and the quiet, consistent white noise of the air conditioner weren't exactly helping her stay awake, either. 

She stretched, yawned, and sat up. Kaede kicked off her sandals, feeing the lush carpeting beneath her feet as she walked over to the light switch and back to bed. Then, Kaede fell asleep in her clothes, dreaming of radio waves.


	2. Wavelength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede makes some new friends, and meets her coworker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this chapter up by the end of the year, and I'm really glad I did. I have a basic idea of what the next one is going to be too, so maybe I'll have that one up by new year's as well!

Kaede woke up with the white noise buzz of the air conditioner in her ear. She stretched in the sun filtering through her window. 

Her room looked... sterile. It almost reminded her of a room in some kind of fancy hospital. Maybe after she put her posters up and stuff it would feel more like home, but the harsh desert sun was nothing like the soft light that she was used to waking up in back home in her apartment. She slid out from under her covers and yawned. 

Looking in the full-body mirror, Kaede realized that sleeping in her clothes may not have been a great idea. She just threw on a pink sweater over her wrinkled shirt, grabbed her ID from off the bedside table and left. 

Kaede made her way back to the lobby, where there was a large map of the complex on the wall. The cafeteria was apparently right above the lobby and Kaede had almost a full hour before work, so she decided to get something to eat. 

The doors to the elevator were so shiny, they almost hurt Kaede's eyes. She pressed the "up" button and they opened for her, so she stepped inside. 

There was a card reader besides the buttons, so she swiped her ID and pressed "2". 

Nothing happened. She tried it again. 

What was wrong with the elevator? The little LED bulb by the card reader was lighting up green, which meant it should have been working... right? Did green not mean "go" in Australia?

She must have tried the same thing four or five times (keeping in mind what Einstein said about insanity) when another person stepped into the elevator. A short, skinny girl with red hair. Kaede smiled with her best "please help me" expression. She got a tired (maybe even a little judgemental) look in return as the girl swiped her ID and, without removing it from the card reader, pressed the "2" button.

It lit up and the elevator started moving.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you. Do all the elevators work like that?" 

The other girl didn't look back at her. "Dunno. I never need to use the one in the research building, 'cause the biology lab's right by where I enter. Kiibo's trying to fix 'em."

The elevator dinged to a stop, and the redhead walked out. Kaede took a moment to take in her new surroundings, a short hallway, then scurried out of the elevator after the other girl. 

"Hey, I didn't catch your name! I'm Kaede Akamatsu. Um, I'm new." The red-headed girl yawned and nodded.

"'M Himiko Yumeno." Himiko pushed open the door to the cafeteria once they approached it. It was a lot more simple than Kaede expected it to be, just a large window where the people working the kitchen served food and shelves surrounding a number of oval-shaped tables (most of which seemed to be empty). Himiko quickly made herself a bowl of cereal and sat down. Kaede realized she wasn't that hungry, suddenly faced with the reality of having to decide what she wanted to eat, and grabbed a cranberry muffin from a nearby shelf. After making sure that Shuichi wasn't in the cafeteria, she sat down across from Himiko. She let her mind wander as she unwrapped her muffin. How long was it actually going to take to see him?

She looked at Himiko, who looked like she was about to fall asleep where she sat. It  was pretty early in the morning, after all. Kaede could sympahise. She took a bite of her muffin, which was just a bit too dry and a bit too sour. 

"So, Himiko, what do you do here?"

Himiko looked up at her. "Hm? Oh, I'm a biologist. Uh, technically I'm still in college, but, y'know..." She yawned. Kaede nodded.

"It's nice to meet you! I'm going to be-" She was interrupted by a girl with a messy braid practically barreling into Himiko and pulling her into a bear hug. 

"How is the most beautiful girl in the world doing today?" she asked, still grasping Himiko. 

Himiko smiled and blushed- she looked used to this sort of thing. Her reply was just "Hey, Tenko," but somehow she made it sound affectionate.

Tenko sat down next to Himiko and took out two energy bars, opened one and slid the other over to Himiko.

Himiko groaned. "I  told  you, I don't want that. It tastes like cardboard and black coffee." 

Tenko gestured to Himiko's cereal. "But this won't give you the energy to take you through the day! Besides, it's caffinated, so you'll feel awake."

"Yeah, but I don't like caffene. It makes me feel jittery."

"But that means it's working! You always look so tired, and I hate seeing you fall asleep at your desk! Even if it is really cute..." Himiko, needing an out from what seemed like a pretty common argument, looked to Kaede. 

"Oh, Tenko, meet Kaede. She just arrived on base." Himiko gestured across the table, and Kaede awkwardly smiled. Tenko looked a little embarrassed to have been so caught up in their quarrel that she didn't even realise there was another person at the table. 

"Oh, Kaede! It's nice to meet you! I'm Tenko Chabashira, botany department. Where do you work?" 

"Um, transmission processing? I start today, so if either of you know where that is I'd love some help getting there." 

Tenko gasped excitedly. "That's still an all-female department! Thank you so much for being a woman in the sciences." 

Kaede smiled. "Oh, uh, thank you. You two seem close, do you work together?" This was apparently a sore subject because Himiko said "yes" and Tenko said "no" at the same time.

Tenko looked at Himiko incredulously. "We've been over this. Biology and botany are  _ not  _ the same."

Himiko smiled back up at her. "Yeah, but botany is a subfield of biology. It's just plant biology."

"I can't believe you would say that! Look, my ID even says 'botanist'. Not 'plant biologist'." 

"Yeah, but we work in the same lab."

"There is a divider between the biology and botany labs!"

Kaede giggled, apparently alerting the two of them to her existence again. Tenko looked back at her and smiled. "We're dating, by the way." She pulled Himiko to her side and kissed her forehead. 

"Aww, you two are so cute together!" Kaede smiled. She really should have seen that coming- Tenko had opened their conversation by calling Himiko beautiful, after all. 

Tenko gasped in excitement. "Himiko, she called you cute!" She shoved her now-empty breakfast bar wrapper into a pocket on her lab coat and stood up. "Come on, Kaede, I can get you to your lab." Kaede balled up the wrapper from her muffin and dropped it in the trash as she walked out the door with Tenko. She looked back to see Himiko sighing as she opened the plastic wrapper on her breakfast bar. It was such a sweet gesture that Kaede felt a little warm inside- would she have that with Shuichi one day? 

\--- 

It turned out that Tenko did not, in fact, know where she was going. They were able to get into the research building okay, but they had done a full tour of the top floor twice with no luck. 

"Are you  sure  it's on this floor?" asked Tenko for what had to be the tenth time. 

"Yeah, this is the only floor where it makes sense to be. The antenna is on the top of the building, so it probably connects to something on the top floor." 

Suddenly, Tenko's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know where it is!" She grabbed Kaede's hand and dragged her down the hallway. 

By the time they reached their destination, Kaede realized that she wasn't much of a runner. Actually, no, how was Tenko so fast and energetic? She was standing and looking at a door while Kaede felt like she'd just run up a flight of stairs. When her head cleared and she looked up, she saw a door that they had ignored twice. 

"Is this the radio lab?" said Kaede, at the same time as she read the small plate beside the doorknob. It did, in fact, confirm that they were standing in front of the radio lab. 

"I think so! Have a good first day!" Tenko was always so cheerful and energetic. She pulled Kaede into a surprising bear hug before leaving, took a couple steps away, and turned back around. "Just so you know, Miu can be difficult. Working with her is barely better than dealing with  _ men _ sometimes. Ugh. But you can always talk to me or Himiko if you need anything! I don't know how much we can help with your research, but- oh, dam- dang it, I totally forgot that I need to be at work! I'll see you later!" Tenko bowed quickly to Kaede before taking off down the hallway. This Miu that Kaede was supposed to be working with was apparently pretty notorious around the base. She couldn't be  that bad, though, right? And Tenko seemed like a good person, but Kaede wasn't sure someone who mentioned how terrible men were at every moment was the greatest judge of character. 

Kaede just wanted to like the person she was going to be working with. If she was going to be deciphering signals sent by intelligent life from across the universe, she wanted to do it sitting next to a friend. She decided to be optimistic as she put a hand on the door handle. 

The doors must have been soundproofed because the second Kaede cracked it open she noticed that someone inside was blasting heavy metal. As she walked inside, she noticed the smell of coffee and the massive block diagrams taped to the wall. The room was pretty simple, a large desk with two seats and at least eight monitors, a whiteboard on the wall where someone had started writing a formula for- okay, what possible reason was there for playing music this loud? Kaede waved at the other person in the room- a woman with wild blonde hair, staring at one of the monitors from the left seat- and said "Hey, can you please turn it down?"

The girl looked over to Kaede and pressed a button on her keyboard, turning her music off. She did a once-over of Kaede's body and said "Daaaaang, lotta meat on them bones for someone with tiny tits."

Kaede took a deep breath, forced a grin, and bowed. "You must be Miu Iruma. We'll be working together from now on- my name is Kaede Akamatsu."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede finishes her first day on the job, and her friend Shuichi makes an appearance.

Miu slumped down in her seat. "Sure. Kaede. Whatever." She gestured to her screen, where there was a collection of sound waves. "I assume you already got the briefing 'n shit?"

Kaede nodded. Miu turned back to face her monitor.

"Cool. Whatever. They don't fuckin' tell you that, like, the only thing I ever do is waste my goddamn time confirming that we're not getting anything new. This entire job is bullshit- the only progress I've made on actual deciphering is a couple great ideas I haven't even had the time to work on."

Kaede smiled at Miu. "Well, maybe with two of us, that'll change."

Miu seemed to perk up instantly. "You're right! With you here, I can spend all the time testing my amazing theories while you do all the busy work!"

"Excuse me?" Kaede said, trying to sound firm. Miu flinched a little bit. "I know the job is mostly confirming new transmissions, but don't just assume I'm going to do all of that the second I show up! I want to work on deciphering too!"

Miu was slinked back in her chair now, tearing up, and Kaede hadn't even noticed. The overconfident, loud girl sitting in front of her suddenly looked like a scared little animal. Kaede felt her heart break a little.

"F-fine..." Miu sniffled. "You can do all the fun shit and I'll just work on matching transmissions... y'know, s-since you're so smart..."

"No, that's not what I-" Kaede sighed and sat down in her chair. "Listen, I'm sorry for losing my temper, but we have to work together, so that means both of us need to do half the work. We're both going to be matching transmissions, and we both get to work on deciphering, okay?"

Miu looked a little wary for a moment, then nodded. Kaede smiled, and made a mental note not to yell at Miu. It hadn't exactly been a great first impression, but Kaede didn't know how she was going to take actually making Miu cry. She sat down at the free monitor and logged in with her ID number.

The desktop already had a program open, which appeared to be the same as the one Miu was using. There were also two folders, "incoming transmissions" and "identified transmissions". Kaede opened one at random from the incoming folder and a file named "Transmission A-1" from the other. The two waves appeared on the program, with identical sections highlighted in red. Initially, they looked strange, like nothing she'd ever seen before. Zooming in on one, it looked like a heavily distorted binary signal, with all the ones and zeros sent three times in a row- no, it made more sense that they were just about three times as long as what Kaede was used to seeing. She clicked around the identified transmissions folder until one of them was a 100% match. The transmission looped twice, and was exactly the same each time. That was something she didn't understand- when was the transmission duplicated? Distortion occured naturally while a signal was being transmitted. It was unpredictable and affected the whole signal. You shouldn't be able to duplicate it like that.

"How do they keep the distortions so consistent?"

Miu shrugged. "Aliens. We don't fuckin' know what kinda tech they got." That was as good an explanation as any. And apparently, Miu had either forgiven Kaede or forgot she was upset, which was a relief.

Kaede looked back at the radio wave. It definitely wasn't as exotic or alien as she'd thought, she wouldn't have recognized it as something that came from so far away. All of the theorizing about this strange, alien planet- that the atmosphere consisted of poisons that weren't found on Earth, that the living things there had harnessed all the energy in the planet's core, that they were fish or reptiles or insects- made Kaede's expectations pretty high. It was grounding to see that their radio waves, their physical representations of sound, were the same as the ones she was used to. Or similar, at least. That distortion thing was going to keep her up at night.

She went through the other recent transmissions. At about the fifth one she matched, she realized that the work was actually pretty dull.

"So this is what you've been doing this whole time?" Miu turned towards Kaede and groaned in agreement. "It's a goddamn waste of perfectly good talent making me do this. What am I, five? I'm basically putting square pegs in round holes."

"...Do you mean square holes?"

"I said what I fuckin' said, Akamatsu."

Kaede giggled quietly, and in the dim light provided by the monitor she was staring at she could see that Miu's cheeks were a little red in embarrassment.

That was the last exchange they had that day before it was time to go. At exactly 5:00, Miu stretched and hopped out of her chair.

"There are so many..." muttered Kaede.

"Well, I'mma go do something worth my time. Seeya." Kaede wasn't even sure Miu was talking to her- the end of her message was cut off as she shut the door loudly behind her. She shut down her own computer and walked outside the room, her eyes taking a second to adjust to the flourescent light.

Well. What did people do around here? How had she not asked a single person that question? She had figured she was going to ask Shuichi- Shuichi! She hadn't even seen him! Okay, her first priority was finding Shuichi.

It didn't prove to be that hard. He was just in a quiet corner of the dining hall, drinking a bottle of oolong tea, with Ouma sitting on the table next to him, legs swinging lazily in the air.

He was probably getting reprimanded or something. Kaede figured she should step in- she couldn't imagine that both 'Shuichi did something that warranted him being yelled at' and 'Ouma is being reasonable' were true at the same time. She sat down next to Shuichi just as him and Ouma were... laughing about something together.

Shuichi turned around to look at her, and gasped. "Kaede! I heard you were coming, but you didn't tell me you were already here!" He gave her an awkward, one-shouldered hug, but it was still nice. She looked at Ouma afterwards, who gave her a curt nod.

"Number sixty-five", he said, looking towards Kaede.

"Wasn't I a different number last time?"

Ouma sighed exaggeratedly. "Do you _really_ think I have the time to remember everyone's number?"

"But didn't you-"

"I'm the most important person in this entire site. I have more important things to do." He made a big show of yawning. "Well, I'm gonna go do all that important stuff. Seeya, Shu-chan."

Kaede whipped her head around to look at Shuichi. "Shu-chan?"

"Well..." Shuichi laughed nervously. "He calls everyone -chan." Everything she heard about Ouma made him harder and harder to understand. But he was a puzzle Kaede didn't need to solve right now.

"It's been, what, two months since you got here? Any big discoveries?" Shuichi smiled at her. She'd missed his smile.

"Not much, to be honest. They want us to work on deciphering, but..." He laughed nervously. "I think you guys are going to have better luck than us."

Kaede remembered the massive backlog of transmissions she'd still have to work through before she could even begin examining them in more detail. "Ugh, I hope. Why do they have us categorizing them instead of actually working?" Shuichi gave her a sympathetic look.

"This whole place doesn't feel like it's being managed very well, does it? I mean, I've been hear for two months, and the most I've done is answer emails." Kaede nodded, and Shuichi kept talking. "I guess I understand- I'd probably be panicing too, if I had to set up something like this."

After that, the two of them fell into a familiar, comfortable silence. It was a strange situation they found themselves in- these little laboratories in the middle of the desert were, to some people, the last line of defense for humanity. She'd read the conspiracy theories that the messages were all " _reply immediately or all life on your planet will be vaporized_ ", but that was hard to believe. Even still, she understood the fear that a message they could immediately decipher would come through, which was what the government was anticipating by making Kaede and Miu intercept new transmissions instead of work on deciphering old ones.

The whole thing was a bit of a mess. A huge, unprecedented, landmark mess. Kaede looked at Shuichi, who was browsing his phone and faintly smiling, and she wondered again if that mess should really be in her hands.

But it was. Kaede Akamatsu was fifty percent of the team deciphering the first alien radio transmissions ever received.

And, she thought as Shuichi showed her a recent news article that mentioned her name, she was determined to be great at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no comments on my update schedule i'm already ashamed enough of myself. but now that i'm on coronavirus lockdown i'll work on this more... unless?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of workplace antics, a little progress is made.

Kokichi Ouma annoyingly sent all his emails with "FROM THE DESK OF THE ESTEEMED KOKICHI OUMA" in bold, obstentatious text both at the top and bottom. 

However, the contents of the email Kaede recieved were less annoying.

"Miu! Did you read the email Ouma just sent?" Kaede asked cheerily as she walked into her and Miu's workspace.

Miu mumbled "If that self-important little shit wants ta..." and searched for a comeback for a few seconds before opening her phone and reading the email. Miu's eyes widened as she did, and Kaede saw her mouth curl into a smile. "Is this real? Am I actually gonna do my fuckin' job? Damn, whose dick did you suck to make this happen? Ouma? Is his cock tiny or  really- " 

Kaede held back laughter and said "Okay, okay," to end that train of thought. 

"I didn't do anything, I promise. I guess they just realized that it's better in the long run to have us be productive."

"Damn right. I'm not gonna start outsourcing my sexual favors." An involuntary burst of laughter left Kaede's lungs at that, and she sat down at her computer. 

She started by putting her headphones on. They couldn't recreate the sound the recording made in any meaningful way, so it had been replaced by a series of beeps that Kaede didn't think was all that helpful. There wasn't even a real rhythm to it- if it was music, it sounded like Kaede's nephew banging his hands on her piano keys. Maybe it was language, then? Was there any natural language that sounded this arrythmic and disjointed? She thought of asking Shuichi, he'd probably know. 

After listening to it a third time, Kaede felt the budding of a headache, and slid her headphones off her ears. She immediately wished she hadn't, because Miu had put her heavy metal music on again. Noise cancelling headphones really went above and beyond the call of duty sometimes. 

And Miu was, for some reason, also wearing the exact same headphones. She seemed pretty absorbed in her work and Kaede didn't want to startle her, so she put her headphones back on and went back to work (not before putting on her own playlist of Chopin's greatest hits, because listening to that beeping again was going to drive her insane). 

Five minutes of staring at the spectrogram later, she got another idea and pulled up a virual piano program on her phone. Maybe if the sound was more familiar to her, it would make more sense- she would assign similar notes to segments that looked similar- but wait, was the aliens' definition of a segment the same as Kaede's? How would she know how to break it up? And now that she wasn't playing music of her own, Miu's playlist was making its way in behind the protective barrier of her headphones. 

Kaede had no idea how anyone could focus like this. She definitely couldn't.

She took off her headphones again and looked over at Miu, still engrossed in typing something. And she still had her headphones on! Kaede hesitated, but decided being yelled at was worth it and tapped Miu on the shoulder. Miu shrieked and accidentally flung her coffee off the desk onto the floor.

"Oh, no, I'm so sorry! I'll go get something to clean it up!" exclaimed Kaede, and she rushed out to the hallway. There was an unlocked broom closet nearby, and she grabbed a mop and a roll of paper towels and ran back. When she managed to open the door without dropping anything, Miu had turned off her music but was glaring at her with her arms crossed. 

"Yeah, damn right you're gonna clean it up. What the  _ fuck _ was that for?" Kaede, who had started mopping up the mess, glared back.

"Do you  _ have  _ to play your music so loud? And you weren't even listening to it!" Kaede pointed to Miu's computer monitor, which had her headphones plugged in, and the phone speaker set up next to it. Miu followed where she was pointing and opened her mouth for a comeback, but her cheeks suddenly went red and her expression changed to embarrassed realization. "Oh, shit," she muttered quietly. 

"I-I mean, of course I was fuckin' listening to it, dipshit! I was just runnin' it through my speakers 'cause I can't work without feeling the bass rumblin' my seat..." 

Kaede stared her down, then sighed. "Sure. Can you at least try?"

"You think there's anything I  _ can't _ do?"

"Fine, Miu."

There was little communication between them for the rest of the day, save for Kaede finding two segments she thought were the same and Miu pointing out a tiny difference between them.

\---

The next day, a miracle happened: Kaede and Miu actually worked together. Not immediately, of course- when she entered the room they shared and slid into her chair, Kaede noticed that Miu was already there, working on something at her desk. No loud music this time, which was good. She opened the incoming transmissions folder to try and work on the backlog- it was really piling up now that they weren't exclusively working on categorizing them. 

She had gotten about an eighth of them lazily sorted when Miu leaned over and looked at her computer screen. She let out a condescending "Ha!"

"I see you finally realized you ain't smart enough for the real work!"

Kaede turned around to glare at Miu, but when she saw her... she kind of looked like crap, with dark circles under her eyes, a coffee stain on her shirt, and her hair piled up into a ridiculous frizzy bun.

"Did you stay up all night?" 

Miu started to respond "Why do you fuckin' care?", but it tapered off into a yawn.

Kaede sighed, and sat down. Miu probably wanted to be left alone. She pressed a button on her speaker (which actually had her headphones plugged into it this time, thank god) and slid her headphones from her neck to her ears. 

Kaede finished around half of the sorting before she actually decided to get to work. Not that "work" didn't feel like staring at words in a language she couldn't read. 

When Kaede looked back at Miu, she was falling asleep at her desk. Kaede sighed, took another futile look at her computer screen, and got up to get both her and Miu coffee. 

She came back with two cups of coffee to the sight of Miu sleeping soundly on her keyboard. She put both cups at a safe distance from Miu and gently shook her awake. Miu woke up, scowled at Kaede and mumbled "Fuck d'you want..." 

Kaede slid Miu's coffee closer to her as she woke up. Miu took a sip and made a big show of grimacing at the taste. "You fucking suck at making this."

"Well, I'm not getting you another one," stated Kaede as she sat down and looked back at her computer, at the two segments she'd isolated.

"Do these look almost the same?" mumbled Kaede to the empty room as she tried to figure out where the segments started and ended. Miu slid her swivel chair over to Kaede's desk and looked. 

"No shit, titless. You fuckin' found something!" Miu wasted no time reaching over Kaede's shoulder and pointing at the screen. "See this part? The one that looks like a tiny dick? I've been seeing it a lot. Way more than anything else. I think it shows where somethin' starts and ends." She went back to her own desk and pulled up a folder of files where she'd found that exact shape. She was right- it was a small, inconsequential little detail, but it repeated itself consistently. She zoomed in on her own soundwave files and found it over and over again. 

"I wonder if this is the kind of detail we're working with..." mumbled Kaede. It was something she would have passed off as random noise in any other circumstance. She was honestly impressed that Miu had picked up on it.

Miu got up, stretched, and wrote "TINY DICK" with a sketch of the pattern on the whiteboard, along with some other unintelligible notes. She plopped back in her chair and spun around. "I'm a fuckin' genius," she sang, and accidentally knocked over her cup of coffee. 

The two of them stared at the casualty for a moment, then Kaede got up. "I can get the mop."

She went over to the same janitor's closet as last time, but thought she heard something rustling inside..? There was no way they could have a rat problem in the middle of the Australian desert, right? Was it a lizard? Oh, god, how big must it have been? 

She cautiously opened the door to see Kokichi Ouma, clothes in a state of disarray, unbuttoning Shuichi's shirt. Shuichi looked up at Kaede, stunned, with his face completely red. Ouma just looked bored. 

"Oh, um... Kaede... I'm sorr- I mean, I'm not- I'm- I'm gay." Shuichi's quiet voice trailed off as Kaede slammed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hc that Miu actually has really good attention to detail when she's not freaking the fuck out at a trial or something. the chapter 4 stuff must have been pretty difficult to pull off.

**Author's Note:**

> if one person comes into my ao3 comments like "that's not how radio works"... Its Beat Down Time


End file.
